China To Sign Deal On Developing Pakistan's Gwadar Port Area

Officials in Pakistan’s western province of Balochistan say they are set to sign a deal with China on November 11 on developing a special economic zone around the deep-sea port of Gwadar.

The 40-year lease would see the provincial government of Balochistan hand over more than 900 hectares of tax-exempt land near Pakistan’s western border with Iran as part of the 2,900-kilometer China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

China is expected to invest $1.6 billion on the economic zone as part of the CPEC -- an ambitious $46 billion plan to build roads, railroads, and power plants linking Kashgar in western China with the Arabian Sea.